Visma | Lease a Bike got a punch in the face, but stays hopeful for the Tour: "The third week will probably decide the race"

In any case, preparations for the Tour have been a lot less problematic this year than a year ago. “He was still coping with the consequences of the crash, even mentally. The Tour was his first race after the crash, so there were a lot of insecurities.” Unlike then, there are no uncertainties now. “He feels comfortable in the peloton, there's no fear. His training was more controlled. We were able to work on all aspects of performance. So yeah, we’re way more confident in Jonas’ level and performance for this Tour than last year.” Vingegaard ultimately finished second in that Tour, behind Pogacar.

“A lot of people made a conclusion based on Plateau de Beille because that was his best relative performance ever on a longer duration climb and his w/kg were never better,” Heijboer says. “But the Tour is much more than that and performance is much more than that. And there were a lot of other things that weren’t as good as they could be.”

How well Vingegaard will do in the Tour remains to be seen. However, it became clear in the Critérium du Dauphiné that Pogacar was ahead at that point. “We focus mainly on Jonas because that’s what we control, and we know what he can do and should work on,” says Heijboer. “But of course, we also look above us, at Pogacar. He’s the best rider in the world right now. He gave us a nice punch in the face again. We try to learn from him, but we cannot turn Jonas into Pogacar. We have to focus on getting the best out of Jonas and the team.”

“There was still some work to do in Tignes, of course, but I think he was even a little bit ahead of what we expected,” Heijboer continued. "Although we lost at the Dauphiné, it was still a battle: Pogacar didn’t take two minutes on every stage. There were positives to take, and we were confident Jonas could improve his level,” Heijboer says. “We still feel confident about that, but we’re also clearly not the favourites. We’re pretty realistic about that,“ he says honestly.

In the Tour, Vingegaard will be strongly supported, with Visma | Lease a Bike also counting on Matteo Jorgenson. “He won’t be the first to work for Jonas. We want to keep him in GC. He’s very dangerous there,” Heijboer reveals the plan for the American. With Sepp Kuss, the Killer Bees have even more climbing power in the team, with Simon Yates also traveling to the Tour.

With Wout van Aert, Edoardo Affini, and now Yates, the team is counting on three Giro riders. “Wout and Simon knew up front they’d do both Grand Tours, so we took that into account,” says Heijboer. “For Affini and Wout, it’s not a problem. Simon was more fatigued, so he needed more time, but he recovered, and he feels ready.” Visma | Lease a Bike therefore seems confident. “We’re confident about the decision, but we’ll only know in Paris.”

Visma | Lease a Bike is therefore relying on the team to beat the competition. “But like every year, we see cycling as a team sport and we try to beat Pogacar and the other opponents with Visma | Lease a Bike and Jonas.” That will have to happen on the terrain where Vingegaard excels. “For sure, that’s still his terrain, although the first week can be dangerous and Pogacar has improved in the heat and altitude. Still, the third week will probably decide the race,” concludes Heijboer.